Environmental education actions promoted by LIFE BEETLES

May 16, 2022

Environmental education and awareness are crucial for the success of the nature conservation actions of the LIFE BEETLES project.

This project, coordinated by the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change, promoted three environmental education activities with 39 participants, among students and teachers of the Academia Olhar Poente and the Colégio Divertiláxia, last April on Terceira island.

These activities, planned for the school community from 12 to 18 years old, in the LIFE BEETLES educational offer for the 2021/2022 school year, began with a walk through the Eucalyptus Forest of Algar do Carvão, a project's area of intervention, where students had the opportunity to observe the local fauna and flora and explore some of its characteristics.

The participants thus interacted directly with specimens from the collection of endemic beetles, the targets of the project, and other insects through the assembly of traps, collection of samples and subsequent analysis under a magnifying glass and respective identification.

Through this outreach, it was possible to draw the attention of the school community to the importance of arthropods in ecosystems, reveal some curiosities about Azorean insects and address some of the environmental threats that endanger several invertebrate species.